Turkish attempt to ban Twitter backfires

Published 6:17 pm, Friday, March 21, 2014

People write slogans during a protest after the government blocked access to Twitter in Ankara.

People write slogans during a protest after the government blocked access to Twitter in Ankara.

Photo: Adem Altan, AFP/Getty Images

Turkish attempt to ban Twitter backfires

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Ankara, Turkey -- Turkey's attempt to block access to Twitter appeared to backfire on Friday with many tech-savvy users circumventing the ban and suspicions growing that the prime minister was using court orders to suppress corruption allegations against him and his government.

Turkey's telecommunications authority said it had blocked access to the social media network hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to "rip out the roots" of the website.

Tweets have proliferated with links to recordings that appear to incriminate him and other top officials in corruption.

Lutfi Elvan, Turkey's minister in charge of transport and communications, said Turkey was merely obeying court orders -although an Istanbul lawyers group argued the court decisions were about blocking access to parts of websites deemed to be violating privacy - not entire websites.

Turkey in the past has blocked access to YouTube, but this is the first ban on Twitter, which is hugely popular in the country to the point where Turkish hashtags routinely appear in global trends. The social network was instrumental in organizing flash protests against the government last year.

Twitter's@policy account tweeted: "We stand with our users in Turkey who rely on Twitter as a vital communications platform. We hope to have full access returned soon."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said blocking the social media site cuts the flow of information and runs contrary to the principles of open governance. He said the U.S. has conveyed its "serious concern" to the Erdogan government.

By midday Friday, tweets were continuing unabated as users swapped instructions online on how to change settings. One enterprising user spread the word by defacing Turkish election posters with instructions on beating censors.

President Abdullah Gul was among those who circumvented the order, which he contested in a series of tweets. Gul, once a political ally of Erdogan, has spoken out against Internet censorship in the past, although last month he approved government moves to tighten controls over the Internet.

"I hope this implementation won't last long," he wrote.

Links to leaked recordings have been popping up on two Turkish Twitter accounts, including one in which a voice resembling Erdogan's instructs his son to dispose of large amounts of cash from a residence amid a police graft investigation.

Erdogan, who denies corruption, said the recording was fabricated and part of a plot by followers of an influential U.S.-based Muslim cleric to discredit the government before March 30 local elections.

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